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…is suicidal. We rescued her last week out in the yard with a broken wing. Since then she has eaten us out of house and home in crickets and mealyworms, but won’t touch earthworms, the brat.
Reason I say she is suicidal is she has cleverly figured out how to open the door to her cage and managed to escape into the livingroom 3 times today. The third time having gained the attention of one of our cats and two of the dogs.
We have since secured the cage doors with ties, and then watched her, the little brat hops over to the perch closest to the door and uses her beak to manipulate the catch! Smart bird, but not very wise…that cage keeps her from getting eaten, all my cats hunt.
Anyway, I thought I would share, I’ll get some pictures of her up tomorrow, she’s really a gorgous bird.
Kyrin
They’re actually pretty darned smart when it comes to problem-solving, but I think she’s forgetting that she can’t fly! 😆 She probably figures she can “deal” with the cats by flying away. Whoops . . . .
The other wonderful thing about starlings is that being an introduced species, you don’t have to worry about Fish & Game giving you a hard time if you end up keeping her! 😉
Barrdwing wrote:They’re actually pretty darned smart when it comes to problem-solving, but I think she’s forgetting that she can’t fly! 😆 She probably figures she can “deal” with the cats by flying away. Whoops . . . .
The other wonderful thing about starlings is that being an introduced species, you don’t have to worry about Fish & Game giving you a hard time if you end up keeping her! 😉
Yeah, the vet already mentioned that, and since the likelihood of her wing healing properly is pretty slim, she will just have to get used to being cagebound. But she is doing amazingly well, and is already pretty tame. It only took about a day for her to stop fluttering all over the cage when we put our hand in there.
And now she chirps and let’s us know when she’s hungry, so she’s already begun the process of training us, so I suspect she will have us domesticated soon. LOL!
Kyrin
Kyrin, how old is the starling?
You can feed it wild bird seeds. My outdoor starlings are constantly at my bird feaders raiding them. 😆I know somebody who ended up keeping an injured starling; they are super-smart! And they take to people surprisingly easily. It may end up eventually mimicking you; they’ve got very good vocal skills.
Blackdesertwind wrote:Kyrin, how old is the starling?
You can feed it wild bird seeds. My outdoor starlings are constantly at my bird feaders raiding them. 😆Seed alone does not a diet make! 😆 They need a varied diet in order to keep them in good health.
However Kyrin shouldn’t need to continue with just insects (and indeed shouldn’t as it can lead to health problems). Good news for her, they’re pricey!
This page is one I’ve found to be really informative when I was raising Chi, a house sparrow with bum feet…
http://www.starlingtalk.com/They have a great writeups on diet here!
http://www.starlingtalk.com/diet.htm
http://www.starlingcentral.net/foods.htmVolunteer mod- I'm here to help! Email me for the best response: nambroth at gmail.com
My art: featherdust.comMy husband rescued a starling a couple of years ago….it was very smart and very messy! He taught it to look under things for bugs and let it go when it was old enough to fly. Last year a starling built a nest in our eaves…we think it was the same one, raising it’s family close to “home”:)
There’s a cute book out there called “Arnie the Darling Starling”. I think I found excerpts in an old Reader’s Digest, and I don’t recall the author. But it was a fun read, and clearly demonstrated how intelligent these little guys can be. 🙂
Never fear, her diet doesn’t consist of just insects, but are a supplemental diet to the seeds she has, which I know are not enough for a primarily insectivorous bird.
I am debating whether I can get her to eat the man made starling diet I found on one website, my only issue is since she is an adult bird, she may not recognize the man made diet as anything edible.
I would estimate she is at least one season old, as she has full adult plumage and the yellow bill of a breeding bird.
I do know that I am going to have to figure out a cheaper why to provide a balanced diet though, and soon!
Kyrin
well, I buy the layer crumbles all the time and they’re not too expensive. Of course I buy the fifty pounders (40 chickens, 3 turkeys and 9 ducks), but they do come in 25 and 10 pound bags.
well cool site,though i did know some of that diet,but as far as i know if you raise an english sparrow or starling you can’t set them free it’s agianst the law,im surprised they don’t state that as far as i know it apply’s to every state,unless that law has been changed by now but i don’t think so.
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